


Exit 307

by SeaWallFics



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Does that cover it?, F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26176237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaWallFics/pseuds/SeaWallFics
Summary: Tobin and Christen fight. Tobin takes off, but will she reach her desired destination?
Relationships: Tobin Heath/Christen Press
Comments: 11
Kudos: 68





	Exit 307

**Author's Note:**

> If this seems familiar to some, please know that I'm not committing plagiarism. I am the original author.

Tobin's speeding along the I-15, her anger forcing even more weight into the lead foot on the gas pedal. Nearing exit 322, a half an hour into her drive, a heavy rain starts to fall. Just her effing luck. As if her sight wasn’t already hindered enough by the tears that keep welling up in her eyes. She refuses to let them fall, however, because she knows that once she starts she won’t be able to stop and she has another 750 miles to go before she's home.

It feels like she's drowning. Her head feels like it's filled with cotton and her lungs can’t seem to draw deep enough breaths to keep her system going and she's choking on the lump in her throat that she just can't seem to swallow. She feels raw and unhinged and she's filled with rage.

She didn't know she could get this angry. Not with Christen. _Never_ with Christen. But she was and it scared her – hell, it scared _Tobin_ as well – so she slammed the door behind her, jumped into her rental and got the hell out of there before losing her mind completely.

Tobin knows the exact reason _why_ she's reacting this way. She feels cornered every time Christen brings up the future. She's not ready to be a wife or the mother of their children. Tobin doesn't want to settle down just yet, because there are too many places left to explore and too many dreams left to fulfill before she anchors herself to a family of her own. To Christen. Tobin told her this and it broke her. She feels an actual twinge in the muscle inside her rib cage when she thinks of how much hurt she's caused. She should've stayed to talk it out. Leaving Christen behind in agony is not something she ever saw herself doing and it’s around exit 342 when she finally eases up on the gas pedal and lets herself cry. As expected, the flood gates open. It’s like a hand reaching into her chest, palming her heart, squeezing the outrage out of its chambers and for a second she's worried she might have an actual heart attack. Furiously wiping her eyes, Tobin's determined to keep driving. Only 730 miles to go.

If she's totally honest with herself, she knows she's making excuses. Christen scares her and that's the truth. She has never felt so connected to someone. Being with her, loving her and being loved _by_ her is one of the scariest things to ever happen to her. Christen is a gift from God – she's convinced of that – but she doesn't feel worthy of so much goodness in her life. She already had so many things going for her that she found herself thanking God every night for the countless blessings He bestowed on her and yet He saw fit to send Christen her way as well.

At first, she believed it to be a test. Christen felt like the seven deadly sins personified, starting with lust and ending with pride. Every sin in between she has committed through or because of Christen and there've been times she dared raise her voice at her Heavenly Father for tempting her so. Passing exit 357, she realizes she’d fight the Holy Spirit Himself with her bare fists to keep Christen in her life. By now, she also realizes she's an idiot.

With 716 miles left to go she's starting to feel anxious. She's not sure she can fix things with the way she left Salt Lake City and she wouldn’t blame Christen for never wanting to speak to her again. While everything inside of her screams at her to take the next exit, she keeps driving away from where she really wants to go. She needs a plan. And a darn good one at that.

A few miles past Willard Bay State Park she turns on the radio. At any other time she’d pull up a playlist on her phone, but she's not ready to see how many unanswered texts await her and how many calls she’s missed. She's a coward. She knows this. It’s the reason she's in this predicament in the first place, isn't it?

There’s a woman’s voice coming from the speakers, a plaintive song filling the car. It fits her circumstances beautifully.

_I don’t know how to pull her back_

_I don’t know how to pull her close_

_All I know is how to wreck her_

She'll never forgive herself for making Christen doubt herself and the place she has in Tobin's life. If she gets another chance – it's a big if – she'll show her every day how much she means to her, she swears to God.

With exit 365 ahead she decides to take it and make a stop for coffee. She needs to do some thinking. She also needs to clean up because her cheeks feel tight from the tears she cried and now that her head feels a lot clearer she's reminded she hasn't eaten much at all today. Her body could use some sugar.

She ends up at a Bar & Grill in Corinne. It's not much to look at on the outside, but they're still open and they have food and drinks and a surprisingly clean bathroom. She orders a coffee from an elderly lady who looks like everyone's grandma and she's instantly charmed. She looks like a woman who knows a lot about everything and Tobin can tell she's a talker. Christen would love her, she thinks, and she's suddenly reminded why she's sat at the bar of a rundown restaurant somewhere between Portland and the woman she calls home.

When Mavis brings her a cup of coffee, she orders a burger and a plate of onion rings, hoping to send her back to the kitchen so she doesn't have to explain why she's on the road past midnight with heartbreak written all over her sleepy face. She just knows that Mavis wants to know. Unfortunately, Mavis' husband – Burt – runs the kitchen. She's back before she knows it, sitting down next to Tobin and lovingly squeezing her arm while asking if she wants to talk about it. She doesn't, but she probably should. Tobin's already decided she's headed back for Salt Lake City after her coffee break and she needs all the help she can get to whip up the apology to end all apologies.

She was right. Mavis is a good listener. Mavis is also a woman who appreciates a decent apology, so there's that. Tobin tells her the whole damn story, not caring that she's never met the woman before today and they'll probably never meet again. Mavis tells her to be honest. Every doubt and every fear needs to come out to fix it and Tobin kind of already knew this, of course, but Mavis seems to think things aren't beyond repair ... yet. She's not so sure herself, but she's willing to do pretty much anything to make things right.

She leaves with a hug and a promise to come back real soon and to bring her future wife. She feels a familiar spike in her heart rate hearing those words but they no longer scare her. Tobin's never ever _really_ thought about what it will be like to be someone’s wife. To be _Christen’s_ wife.

Looking over her right shoulder, she backs out of the parking space. In a moment of absolute clarity she recognizes how looking back is what keeps her from looking ahead. She's baffled by the comparison but she couldn't be more right. In the lot of Mim's Bar & Grill in Corinne, Utah, Tobin experiences an epiphany.

Finding her way back onto the highway to Salt Lake City she thinks of all the things she needs to tell Christen, even if she doesn't let her back into the apartment. She'll sit outside and shout it through a closed door if she has to. Tobin will tell her and anyone who's willing to listen that she's not afraid of the future. She's not afraid of getting married or having babies. Hand over the turkey baster, she'll say! No, she's not afraid of the house she'll buy and the memories she'll make there, dogs and kids and friends and family included.

With Willard Bay in her rear view mirror, she comes to the conclusion that she's not afraid of having it all. The thing that scares her – what keeps her up at night – is _losing_ it all. But there’s no reward without risk and she knows this. Day in and day out Tobin fights for her place in the world. She fights for club and country, giving everything she has to play the sport that she loves so much. She fights for equal rights and equal pay and now she's going to fight for Christen and the wedding she dreams of and the fifteen children they'll have together, gosh darn it! Well, fifteen may be a lot, but knowing her girlfriend, Christen has the exact number jotted down somewhere. She's probably already named them as well.

There are 50 miles and one hard conversation between her and her future now and she's thankful that seventh sin didn't keep her from heading back to Utah's capital. She has no idea what to expect when she gets there, but exit 307 into Salt Lake City can't come fast enough.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I'm cleaning up some of the finished stories I posted here and then deleted. There's a CP POV as well. Let me know if you're interested and I'll be sure to edit that one first.


End file.
